The myth of the Jewish people

The author wasn’t probing a belief system but Zionist fabrications of a spurious common lineage for people of the Jewish faith.

Sand argues that the idea of Jews having a common ethnic identity is implausible because, as with Christianity and Islam, Judaism was originally a “proselytising religion”.

The notion of Judaism as a “race”, rather than a religion of various races, is without foundation.

The results of a recently published study by Israeli-American geneticist Dr Eran Elhaik at John Hopkins University have scientifically and genetically validated Sand’s research.

Modern political Zionism, which otherwise rejects the Christian Bible, adopted the untested story of “Jewish exile” to establish a mythical linkage between European Jews and the Middle East.

The idea of a “nation race” was progressively developed and reinforced over centuries among segregated Jewish communities in Europe.

With the rise of German nationalism in the 19th century, Jewish historian Heinrich Graetz “retrospectively” crafted a discrete identity for the ghettoized people – mapping their origin to an old kingdom and wandering exiles.

The exiles tales transpired from a Christian myth of “divine punishment” imposed on Jews for rejecting the new religion.

The parable is likely to have originated from the Old Testament story of Jews wandering the desert for disobeying God and worshipping a golden calf.

Christians propagated the concept of exile to lure “disobeying” Jews to the new religion, becoming their saviour from another eternal banishment.

Modern political Zionism, which otherwise rejects the Christian Bible, adopted the untested story of “Jewish exile” to establish a mythical linkage between European Jews and the Middle East.

But Jewish history tells us that the Romans did not expel the original Jews from Palestine when they crushed the Simon bar Kokhba revolt in 136 AD but instead barred them only from city of Jerusalem – and even then they were allowed to visit it during Tisha B’Av, the annual fasting day on the ninth day of the month of Av in the Hebrew calendar.

Under Christianity and during the Roman Empire a large number of native Jews converted to Christianity and, with the advent of Islam, most adopted the new religion and assimilated under the new power.

Followers of the first monotheistic religion continued to have a presence in Palestine hundreds of years after the waning of the Roman Empire.

The last recorded history of an autonomous Jewish entity was under the tutelage of the Persian Empire in 614 AD, before it was dismantled by Byzantine forces in 625 AD.

A little over 10 years later Palestine was conquered by the Muslims and became part of the new Arab and Muslim community.

Under Christianity and during the Roman Empire a large number of native Jews converted to Christianity and, with the advent of Islam, most adopted the new religion and assimilated under the new power.

In addition to the descendants of the Canaanites, the original denizens before patriarch Abraham’s arrival from Mesopotamia, Sand concludes that today’s Muslim and Christian Palestinians are actually the true progenies of the original Jews.

So if there was no exile, where did European Jews come from?

Sand suggested that most of today’s Jews did not originate from the Middle East.

He argues that the European (Ashkenazi) Jewish ancestry can be traced back to the Caucasus region.

Founded on a mélange of myths and manufactured historical tales, Israel has failed the archaeological test of time and is now exposed by DNA science.

In the 8th century, the Khazars’ subjects and subordinate tribes experienced the largest religious conversion in the history of Judaism.

The recent study by John Hopkins geneticist Dr Elhaik confirms that the common genome structure of the European Jew gravitated towards an origin in old Khazaria.

“The majority of Jews do not have Middle Eastern genetic component,” he told Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Founded on a mélange of myths and manufactured historical tales, Israel has failed the archaeological test of time and is now exposed by DNA science.

Today’s genetics prove unequivocally that in 1948 “the children of the original Jews” were replaced by 8th century converts with no roots in the Middle East.

A version of this article was first published in the Gulf Daily News. The version here is published by permission of Jamal Kanj.